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Episode 405 – On knowing yourself

• Welcome my listeners
• One week already into our 400 series of episodes
• And it wasn’t a light week
• We covered some pretty deep stuff
• This week was all about the quest for you
  • How to look more within yourself
  • How to allow yourself to be more of who you really are
  • And how to better show up in this world by taking an honest look at ourselves and learning to correct our behaviors that make us less proud
  • This requires vulnerability and courage – no doubt
  • And this week I gave you an example of where I had take a hard look at myself and what the outcome was once I made a change
• This is the quest for you
• The quest to be our best self
• And as part of this journey we learn to know ourselves better
• I talked to someone the other day about diet
• She is getting married at the end of this year and wants to loose some weight
• She shared that she signed up for Weight Watchers and some of her observations
  • For example she used to drink wine every night with dinner and now stopped that
  • And when she does drink wine once in a while she doesn’t feel good the next day – all sluggish and tired
  • She mentioned a certain bar she like to eat and that she stopped eating because it consumed half her points for the day
  • She wasn’t aware of all the ingredients in the bar
• When we focus on an area of life because we want to improve it – we suddenly awaken
• We become conscious
• We realize that we have been doing things we don’t even enjoy
• We notice the consequences of our actions
• Whether we are trying to lose weight or spend more time with our family –
  • When we are motivated
  • when we shift focus onto ourselves
  • when we listen to ourselves
• we learn
• we get to know ourselves better
• and we wake up
• be become conscious to the person we are
  • our habits
  • our strength and weaknesses
  • our fears and worries
  • our behaviors and our thoughts
• and this self-awareness is essential if we want to make changes
  • if we want to accomplish something challenging
  • if we want to pursue our dreams
• when we become conscious – we wake up to the things that hold us back
  • those things we think are part of us and that cannot be changed
  • those that we just accept as given
• we begin to grasp the extend of our power
• self knowledge is a great by product when you are on the quest for you
• and it gives you the power to be who you want to be

• I want to end this amazing week with a few lines from the wise Lao Tzu-
  • He was a Chinese philosopher credited with founding the philosophical system of Taoism.
  • He is known as the author of the much quoted Tao-Te-Ching, the work which exemplifies his thoughts
• The following few lines are from the Tao-Te-Ching and they deal with the self knowledge we just talked about
•  

Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,

you are truly rich.

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart,

you will endure forever.

-Lao Tzu-

(Tao Te Ching, chapter 33, translation by Stephen Mitchell)

• Everything is within us
• There is nothing we really need to do to realize that and begin to live with that
• Mastering ourselves is not some kind of forced action
• I noticed it comes naturally as I learn more about me
• Recall the example of the friend I spoke with
• Once she realized that alcohol didn’t even make her feel good – she stopped drinking
  • In fact – she doesn’t even want to drink anymore
• This is self mastery
• A simplified example, but I believe it works like that with everything that’s holding us back
• Once we shine the light on ourselves – we will become aware
• when we take to time to get to know ourselves, we will realize that a lot of our fears, worries and doubts are just an imagination and that we are capable of so much more
• I wish you this self knowledge my friends
• With all my heart
• Because then you will be able to realize the dreams you have

Much love.